Because in Silence I Find No Hurt
by Nekon
Summary: Jim never dealt well with being alone.


Title: Because In Silence I Find No Hurt 1/3  
Author: Mad Hatter Rune  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: Jim never dealt well with being alone.  
Notes/Warnings: Some swearing, some Jim being sad, some hallucinations, first time writing Star Trek for author.

AN: 1) My grammar and spelling suck. I tried to read it through and catch it, but if I suck once, likely I suck twice. 2) I had initially intended no hallucinations for Jim, but it gets really monotone with no conversations. 3) Spock is hard to write, even fake Spock. 3) Why don't people who look like Chris and Zach appear in my world? Eye candy is good.

_Monday, September 7_

Nothing was happening.

Which actually wasn't so rare as you'd think. For all the hype about Starfleet and traveling the universe, exploring the unexplored and meeting the... unmeet, it was shockingly boring at times. It took weeks to travel to known planets, much less find new ones with sentient life forms. So instead of daring rescues and exciting new encounters, Jim had instead perfected the art of sleeping with his eyes open. He was pretty damn good at it now, though he doubted Spock was fooled. The Vulcan took pleasure in sneaking up behind him and whispering his name in his ear. Spock claimed he was just trying to get Jim's attention, but Jim was pretty sure Spock was just as bored as he was. And vindictive.

But he digressed. Nothing may happen 90% of the time, but at this moment there had been a blast heading with unnerving accuracy at Jim's chest. Which in fact should have hit long before his mind took its hiatus.

He really needed to suck it up and look. It was like when he was a child after a bad dream, absolutely certain there was something in the room with him but unwilling to look to confirm. As if somehow him not being able to see it would prevent the reverse. Jim had learned very quickly in Starfleet that kind of thinking didn't work though he admitted to using a few times (only in the first few missions... really)

Jim slowly opened his eyes with the full expectation of having a blast burrow its way through his chest. Hopefully it would be quick and he wouldn't have to listen to Spock and Bones tag team him about what an idiot he was while in his death throes, with Uhura smirking in the background. But damn did she have a good smirk.

Instead, things were oddly still. Oh, the blast was still there, but instead of plowing into him, it seemed to have paused, resting about 6 inches from his chest. There was still a trail of light behind it, making it look like someone had taken a still photo and superimposed it in front of him.

"Spock!" Jim said, turning and looking at his second in command, pointing at the frozen blast like a child in a candy store. "It's frozen! How lucky is that?"

Spock stared stonily back, only a hint of widening in his eyes. Figured, the laws of physics were just broken and Spock wouldn't even grace Jim with a hint of surprise. Fine, he'd just talk to Bones. Bones always had a reaction.

Eagerly turning towards his friend, Jim's mouth opened. Then slowly slid shut. Bones had been positioned next to the assassin, and was in fact the first to notice the blaster that the Andelin had pulled out. It was his shout of warning that had prompted Jim to turn around from where he was conferencing with Spock. He hadn't had time to do more than shut his eyes in reaction to the flash of light when the blaster discharged, having enough time to think what a crappy and unexciting way to go out.

What he hadn't been able to see in that split second was Bones diving towards the Andelin, attempting to knock the blaster out of its paw. But instead of the two being knocked to the floor, Bones was frozen in position, one arm outstretched towards the assassin, legs posed in flight.

Jim slowly maneuvered around the blast and moved towards his friend. Raising a hand slowly, he waved it in front of Bones eyes; no reaction. Bringing both hand up, he clapped them really hard, searching for any sort of reaction. Again, nothing. Feeling a bit foolish, he reached out and poked Bones in the chest. Maybe it was a hologram? But putting up resistance was warm flesh, concaving slightly with the pressure of his finger. Bones felt alive, felt real. With further inspection, he realized that the front of the right foot was only barely touching the floor. Bones was essentially flying.

In a quick circulation around the room, Jim discovered that everyone was frozen in the same way, though no one else was apparently hovering in air. Chekov and Sulu were both staring towards where Jim used to be standing, alarm only just creeping in their faces. Uhura looked the most interesting after Bones. She had obviously been turning around when the stand still had occurred and her long brown hair was caught in almost a halo around her head. Throughout his search, no movement was made, no noise emitted.

"Jesus that's creepy." Jim's voice echoed in the silent cabin.

He moved back towards Spock, because if anyone could resist being frozen, Spock could, he leaned in close to the Vulcan's face.

"Spock?" No reaction. "Can you hear me?"

Jim first examined the Vulcan's face, looking for any shift of expression. There was none, though perhaps Spock hadn't been the best choice for that particular exercise. He next peered into Spocks' eyes, looking for any indication whatsoever of awareness. They looked the same as always.

"Shit. I never believed in that eyes are the windows to the soul crap anyways."

Placing his hands on his hips, Jim took another look around the cabin, eyes falling on the turbo-lift and stopping.

The crew.

Maybe it was only in the helm that this oddity had happened. The ship was still running so someone had to be doing something somewhere. They would have had no idea what was happening in the helm and would simply be continuing to perform their duties as always. With such a myriad of cultures and backgrounds, someone would have a clue what was happening.

Jim moved quickly over to the turbo-lift, practically humming in impatience when it didn't immediately. The turbo-lift was usually a relatively silent piece of equipment, but it always performed quickly. Of course today of all days it would decide to crap out. Jim drew back his foot and kicked it with all his might. And promptly squeaked in pain. Shit but his ship was hard.

Perhaps it was also affected by the strange phenomenon that made all the people unable to move. After all, it was in the same room, technically.

Anxiety quickened his pace as he strode out the door (thankfully already open) and headed down the hallway. The first few people he came across were just as his helms crew and he bypassed them quickly. It was probably proximity that effected them. They were simply too close. Jim snapped glances in various rooms as he moved through the Enterprise. All around his crew looked like some sort of modern art exhibit that Jim hated and Bones loved to drag him too. Statues frozen performing mundane, everyday actions. Playing cards, reading data pads, walking the halls. Mouths gapped open, unable to move mid-sentence. Jim moved quicker and quicker, slamming his hand against access points, breath coming in small pants and he practically ran through the halls. Everyone, everyone was affected. He was the only one still moving. He was alone.

Jim bent double, breath coming in harsh gasps. He stared sightlessly at his knees, mentally regulating his oxygen. He very deliberately didn't think about anything else. Finally when his heart-rate slowed to a normal speed he stood up, straightened his shirt and smoothed his hair.

Looking to his left at Samuels he said, "Well Ensign, looks like I'm stuck in a bind. Any suggestions?"

Ensign Samuels stared back blankly, permanently stuck with his finger up his nose as he dug for gold. Wrinkling his nose, Jim started down the hall before stopping and pausing. Reaching out he placed his hand under the Ensigns nose. Nothing to be felt. He immediately moved his hand further south, pressing it against Samuels chest. No movement. The man wasn't breathing.

Twisting in place, Jim sprinted back towards the helm. How long had it been since the crew froze? Ten minutes? More? At the least brain damage could present after six minutes without oxygen. Had he condemned his crew to death allowing himself these few wasted minutes of panic?

Entering the room at a dead spring, Jim went to Bones and felt his chest. Again there was no movement, or with anyone else in the room. He couldn't even enjoy touching Uhura's breasts.

Moving over to the Captain's chair, he slumped down, pressing his hands to his face. His crew may be dead and he was stuck in the ship with their frozen corpses. His friends may be dead and all he had done to prevent it was run around like a chicken with its head cut off. What a fucking waste he was. Christ, he was going to go crazy in this silence. No noise at all, just his own breathing.

"No noise?" Jim said.

That wasn't right. The computers always emitted some noise; tiny electric beeps that the mind censored out within days of being on the ship. He hadn't noticed them missing initially; he was so accustomed to them and the panic chased out any other rational thought.

Exploring the computers, he found them all as still as the crew. The normally blinking lights were still, not even a curser flashed up at him. He had thought initially that the computers had also been effected, but that hadn't made sense. If they had been frozen, there at least would have been a few electric shortages. Now that he had slowed down, he realized there had to be something else going on. If Everyone had simply been frozen, their bodies may have stopped moving, but the gravitation would still have exerted it's power on their bodies and they would have fallen to the ground.

Moving swiftly to Bones, he dropped to his knees and peered at his right foot before sitting back on his hunches. As he had suspected Bones foot no longer touched the floor, instead residing just a mere sliver above it. Which meant that Bones had moves, just so slightly it was impossible to see with the naked eye. He knew what it was.

A time dilation field.

Which meant that everyone wasn't suspended, but instead moving so slowly that any real movement was damn near impossible to see. Whether it was Jim's time moving incredibly fast or the rest of them moving incredibly slow was hard to distinguish though in the end it didn't really matter. The end result was the same.

With a snarl of frustration, Jim grabbed a communicator of the counter and flung it at the wall, shattering the small machine into tiny pieces. While he was glad his friends weren't dead he wished the situation were just about anything else. Stuck in a time dilation field meant that he had no access to the technology that might be able to fix the problem. The computers were moving much slower than him so any research that he attempted would possibly take years to appear. Fixing such a complex issue as this would probably take a lifetime.

Meandering slowly around the open space, Jim talked aloud to his crew. "Now what could cause something like this? As far as I know no equipment on this ship as these sort of capabilities. Maximum warp is the highest this ship can bend time and space and I know other ships can move faster than us, so it's unlikely the warp drive caused this. I suppose the Andelin might have some sort of technology that we haven't heard of yet but what point would it be to move me out of time? He... she...?" Out of habit Jim glanced over at Spock before checking himself and resuming his travels. "IT was about to kill me. All this did was allow me time to move out of the way."

With a slight smirk, Jim stiffened his spine and clasped his hands at the small of his back. He empties his face of all emotion and very slowly raised one brow in a perfect arch.

"Captain," he cut himself off.

"Jim."

A long pause. "_Captain_. In most missions it is usually wise to have a backup plan. The time dilation field might be one of those."

"But a time dilation field? What's the point of that? So I wonder around quicker than everyone else."

Jim pivoted sharply in front of Spock, silently matching his gaze. Though he knew Spock had no awareness for the current proceeding an answer nonetheless popped up in his head.

"You are moving at a much more accelerated speed than the rest of the crew Captain. It is likely years will go by for you before seconds will pass for us. Logically, you will be dead of old age before we even realize you are gone. It would indeed be a unhappy way to perish."

"I hate you Spock."

"Understood."

It wasn't his best Spock impression, but even Spock would be unnerved with the circumstances. He could cut his fake Spock a little break.

Jim did three more circuits around the room before stopping at the door.

"I'm hungry." He informed no one and walked out.

Luckily it was near lunch time, so there was quite a bit of food littering the tables. He had a good variety of choices, though as he slowly counted the dishes, it would certainly not last him to old age. Not that he was sure he'd want it to. Still for now he stole a sandwich of some random engineers plate and munched on it. The silence was almost more unnerving in the mess hall, where it was never quiet, not even in the dead of the night. Voices rose and fell from loud to louder and the only time he ever remembered it really quiet in here was when Ensign Dolby had been hit with an inhibition spore and started a strip tease on one of the middle tables. The stunned silence had only lasted a few heartbeats before catcalls and raunchy innuendos were being flung around like hotcakes. Luckily Jim and Spock had entered the mess hall before the lingerie had came off and were able to wrestle the her out. Jim felt bad for the poor lady, who didn't leave her quarters for a month, but damn the look on Spock's face when one of her socks had landed on his perfectly coifed hair... priceless.

With little else to do after he'd eaten, Jim headed to his quarters, intend on reading every goddamn book in his room as well as in everyone else's until some sort of answer could be found.


End file.
